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Thursday, July 16, 2015

A Voice for the Silent

In
response to the tragic terrorist attack of September 11th, 2001, Xaver
Wilhelmy began research and development to create organ pipes from
glass. "I thought, one ought to remember the life. One
ought to remember the interaction, the voices of people," said
Xaver Wilhelmy. “Life is better remembered in a musical
instrument, as opposed to a memorial that is mostly stone.” In
fact, this sound sculpture was the basis for a proposed Ground Zero
monument that would have included more than 3,000 pipes - one for
each person lost. The thought was to make each pipe uniquely
beautiful, each with it's own voice, and to dedicate each glass organ
pipe to one of the individuals lost. While the site plan never came
to fruition, this instrument remains a voice for those silenced that
fateful day.

In his own words:

Having had the good fortune of completing an apprenticeship in pipe organ
building at Rieger-Orgelbau under Caspar Glatter-Goetz some 30 years
ago, the encouragement at Rieger to be creative and scientifically sound
has stayed with me all those years.

So, after those outrageous
attacks on civilian lives of 96 nations on September 11th, 2001, my mind
was occupied as to how one could possibly remember the sudden loss of
so many people. With those heinous acts all the interaction of their
individual characters, voices, strengths, and delicate nuances stopped.

Would these people be memorialized with granite, chiseled name lists,
and running water, like so many memorials of recent history?

New
York City has always had a special place in my heart, since I worked
there for Rieger several months in the mid-eighties, and the field in
Pennsylvania, where the one aircraft was brought down by its courageous
passengers, as well as the Pentagon building I also have
heart-connections to.

With my private time towards the end of
2001 spent by envisioning the heavenly Jerusalem as described in the
book of Revelation in all its colour, materials, and design; and with
pondering for over 17 years by then as to how to incorporate glass in a
contributive way into pipe organs, the obvious answer crystallized:

Remember
the voices. Create strikingly beautiful glass organ pipes with
never-repeating patterns and details of all pitches to complete a 48
stop pipe organ (which would have around 3,000 pipes - one for each life
lost) within a circular, glass-domed concert-memorial hall of intimate
size, about 24 meters diameter.

Here, the voices and individual
characters of the victims could be remembered in musical interaction,
visual beauty, and meaningful architectural harmony. Due to the
predominance of glass, any visitor would be exposed to an ever-changing
display, governed by the external weather and time of day of the visit.

With today's technology, the instrument could be played 24/7 via the
internet by musicians around the world - bringing the 96 nations
together, whose citizens were amongst those killed.

Organ pipes
have their components named after human anatomy, like "foot, body, ear,
beard, mouth," etc., so to dedicate one pipe to a single person was a
natural thought.

In January of 2002, I started making the first
prototypes, adjusted their voicing, and smoothed out the production
process for about half a year.

By October of 2002 it became apparent,
that we needed to create a set of glass pipes, that could demonstrate
the beginning of design possibilities.

With the attacks having been
made on U.S. soil, I decided to let the American Flag "wave" across this
14-pipe facade, with the image effortlessly alternating between the
front and the back of the pipes. This set is based on a Principal 8',
150mm diameter low C, with a nice German "Strich", and it has tuning
devices in glass fitted as well. It is voiced at 80mm, but we found it
to create also a very warm cello sound at a wind-pressure as low as
58mm, which was used for a youtube video demonstration.

It took
us 18 months to complete this set by June of 2004, and at times, I and my six employees worked full time on this project. The glass is
hand cast in Washington and Oregon State, with the image of the American
Flag being followed "to a T" and fused in a glass kiln we had custom
made for that purpose. To give the image "life", we not only gave the
left edge a gentle arch, but its size diminishes by 7% from left to
right, with all stars diminishing in size as well as the stripes
to maintain a pleasing optical proportion. The right edge playfully
wraps around the third to last pipe on the right towards the front.

We
also designed and built a Trumpet 8' and Clarion 4' division with the
resonators from Low C to tenor e being of copper and glass, with the
rest of the notes being made of all glass, tapered and round. The
windchest feeding these innovative, "cut to length" glass trumpet pipes
houses almost more innovations itself, than one can find in the pipes.

We like to have fun.

With
the introduction of glass in pipe making, the choices for organ fronts
don't have to be silver, gold, or wood anymore, but anything your
imagination allows! From fresh colours, via chameleon-like blending with
textures and colours found within the architectural setting, all the
way to total translucency the possibilities of integration of the
contemporary pipe organ is limitless.